From Greenwashing to Green Marketing: The Case of Land Consumption

In his book "A Plan to save the planet" (2009), N. Stern says that there is no more time: the climate and environmental crisis causes constraints that should prompt us towards a decisive change in the name of our planet and future generations. This change is imposed by the development model promoted and disseminated by Western world. The way we produce and consume puts us well above our means, especially above our energy resources, which is of concern because in the short term these trends may potentially lead to self destruction. The first part of this paper is focused on this issue. The second part is focused on the case of land consumption in Italy as a factor supporting the current development model and as an emblem of current climatic, environmental, economic and social crisis. In the third part a different model is described, which derives from culture of Italian lower classes, with ancient rural origins: the so-called culture of essentiality (Pieretti 1996). This culture has its own internal traits of "natural" sobriety that can be a compass to guide towards a more sustainable and equitable navigation and that can provide inspiration for communication and marketing.